From Merthyr Tydfil, Monday to Saturday services to Cardiff
operate half-hourly at 08 and 38 minutes past the hour between 06.38am (except
at 10.04am) and 7.38pm, then at 8.38pm, 9.38pm and 10.38pm.
On Sundays, trains run at two-hour intervals between 9.38am and
9.38pm.

From Cardiff Central, Monday to Saturday, the trains are
half-hourly
at 26 and 56 minutes past the hour between 5.26am and 6.26pm, then 7.26pm,
8.26pm, 9.27pm and 10.26pm.
On Sundays, trains run at two-hour intervals between 8.26am and 8.26pm.

Special fares and/or timetables will apply to all Valley Line services on event
days at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Places of interest...

...on the route include the town of Merthyr Tydfil itself,
which has many sites of historic significance such as Cyfarthfa Castle and the Ynysfach
engine house. Cyfarthfa Castle houses an art gallery, and the lower forms of the
local grammar school, but the latter will be relocated in the next year or so.
Iron working made it the largest town in South Wales, until the late-1840s
when the growth of coal mining in the valleys areas led to the development of Cardiff as
one of the world's major ports.
It was from the Penydarren ironworks that the world's
first steam-hauled train ran in 1804 when ten tons of pig iron and some seventy passengers
were hauled nine-and-a-half miles to join the Glamorgan Canal basin at Navigation House
(present-day Abercynon). A number of
commemorative events took place for the bicentenary in 2004.
Near Pentrebach station is the world's first railway tunnel (pictured right) through which the Penydarren locomotive
hauled its train on its pioneering run. At Tramroad in Merthyr
Tydfil and alongside the fire station in Abercynon are monuments commemorating the event;
while between Edwardsville (near Quakers Yard) and Mount Pleasant (near Merthyr
Vale) it is possible to walk part of the original route which, in places, still has
some of the stone rail chairs in situ (pictured left).
Rhydycar Sports Centre at Merthyr offers indoor leisure facilities, while all of the
stations on the route give access to the Taff Trail which runs from Cardiff to Brecon. Designed specifically for cyclists and walkers,
journeys of any length can be taken by getting off at one station and walking to another.
There is a cycle hire facility at Radyr (see Cardiff and Pontypridd
section below).
Across the valley from Merthyr Vale station is Aberfan cemetery, which
has a memorial to the 144 people (all but 28, children) who lost their lives in October 1966
when the colliery waste tip slid down the mountainside and engulfed the village primary
school.Quakers Yard is a reminder of the Society Of Friends burial ground which
was located nearby. The station uses the former Low Level Down platform
and serves a mainly residential area. The High Level station was nearer the main
road and closed in 1964, when the Pontypool Road to Neath route was axed. Abercynon also serves residential communities, but there is a sports and leisure centre.